Flights of Freedom

Origin of Terms Series The "Today QiYun Learnt" Digest Alright, here's another fun fact for the day: The English word "salary" is derived from the Latin phrase salarium argentum , which means "salt money'. This was because salt was so valuable even in those times that it was also used as a currency, and was part of the payment made to soldiers in Rome.

Trebuchet MS  (The "Today QiYun Learnt" Digest:  Origins of Terms Series) Trebuchet MS Font Face Alright, so the context was: I saw on my YouTube feed, some video about a trebuchet. Now a trebuchet is a gravity-operated catapult device used in the olden days for sieges against castles and fortified embankments. The name seemed really familiar to me and I wondered where I had seen it before. Then it dawned on me - it was the name of a nice font that I used to use, before I came to try out Helvetica, Century Gothic etc.  And then came my million dollar question: what could possibly be the link between that font and an ancient gravity-operated catapult? So today I learnt that, according to Wikipedia: The name was inspired by a puzzle question that Vincent Connare (the font's designer) heard at Microsoft headquarters: "Can you make a trebuchet that could launch a person from main campus to the new consumer campus about a mile away? Mathematically, is it po...